Join S2S and our team of Virginia Falconers, Master Naturalists, and Blue Star Military Families for a Citizen Science Month Bioblitz on City Nature Challenge and American Battlefield Park Day at Manassas National Battlefield Park on Saturday April 26th at 8:30am! We will meet at Event HQ here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/D4nPmsh5FjShdfDG8 Instructions, materials and refreshments will be provided. S2S has put together a Citizen Science Bioblitz at Manassas National Battlefield Park in northern Virginia for April 26 to coincide with CitSci Month, City Nature Challenge and American Battlefield Trust’s Park Day. We have spent the last year installing and prepping 20 American kestrel research nest boxes with a local falconer and permitted bander. This was the founding project for S2S when I originally managed and monitored these boxes in 2013. HawkWatch International provided us a mini-grant to refurbish and expand the network, which we have now done. We are focused on better understanding kestrel nestbox success in the park, and to that end, we thought an updated biodiversity inventory would assist in the kestrel research. We’ve now linked up with several local veterans who are Virginia master naturalists, and we have organized a group of 14 additional Virginia Master Naturalists to help lead a kickoff BioBlitz on the 26th to begin an updated biodiversity inventory at the park. We welcome any interested participants and it may be a nice opportunity for SciStarter Ambassadors to join in event-day education and participate as guides on the BioBlitz hikes as well. The event has come together nicely. The park will have some of its own local volunteers, over a dozen of Blue Star Families and several S2S veterans and their families will be attending as well. All in all, it’s grown to a fairly large event and a nice chance to introduce citizen science to the wider military community and general public. Email soldiers2scientists@gmail.com to signup!